resting experience, which I
thoroughly enjoyed.

[Footnote 1: The Amir's eldest son, who had rebelled on his younger
brother, Abdulla Jan, being nominated heir to the throne.]

[Footnote 2: Before Lord Northbrook left India he sent Major Sandeman
on a Mission to Khelat to re-open the Bolan Pass, and endeavour to
settle the differences between the Khan and the Baluchistan tribes,
and between the tribes themselves, who were all at loggerheads.]

[Footnote 3: Presents given by the British Government to the Mir of
Wakhan in recognition of his hospitable reception of the members of
the Forsyth Mission on their return from Yarkund.]

[Footnote 4: 'Besides the sixty-three Ruling Chiefs, there were nearly
three hundred titular Chiefs and persons of distinction collected
at the Imperial Assemblage, besides those included in the suites
of Ruling Chiefs.--J. Talboys Wheeler, 'History of the Delhi
Assemblage.']

[Footnote 5: These gold medals were also presented to the Governors,
Lieutenant-Governors, and other high officials, and to the members of
the Imperial Assemblage Committee.]

[Footnote 6: In endeavouring to describe this historical event, I have
freely refreshed my memory from Talboys Wheeler's 'History of the
Imperial Assemblage,' in which is given a detailed account of the
proceedings.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIII.
1878

Object of the first Afghan war
--Excitement caused by Russia's advances

Before continuing my story, it will, I think, be as well to recall to
the minds of my readers the train of events which led to England
and Russia becoming at the same moment solicitous for the Amir's
friendship, for it was this rivalry which was the immediate cause of
the second Afghan war.

Less than two hundred years ago the British Empire in the East and
Russia were separated from each other by a distance of 4,000 miles.
Russia's most advanced posts were at Orenburg and Petropaulovsk, while
England had obtained but an uncertain footing on the seaboard of
southern India. The French were our only European rivals in India, and
the advance of Russia towards the Oxus was as little anticipated as
was England's advance towards the Indus.

Thirty years later Russia began to absorb the hordes of the Kirghiz
steppes, which gave her occupation for more than a hundred years,
during which time England was far from idle. Bengal was conquered, or
ceded to us, the Madras Presidency est